Verizon today made good on its promise to eliminate the "unlimited" data plan for smartphones like the iPhone 4, announcing on All Things D that the offer would end in July, to be replaced with tiered usage. The report quotes enthusiast site Droid Life as saying the new plans will be in effect as of July 7th. The $30 per month charge for unlimited data will then be capped at 2GB.
Tethering would be a separate charge, the report claims, but would bring its own "basket" of another 2GB for an additional $20. Plans would scale up to a limit of 10GB for $80 per month. While the changes will prove more expensive for power-users, the vast majority of smartphone users actually report using very little of the data they pay for, an average of less than 500MB per month.

Carriers say that the growth in mobile data usage has grown significantly, including an 89 percent jump from last year, lead largely by the growth in smartphone penetration and the influx of new Android and other smartphones into the market, making the unlimited data model "unsustainable for the industry" according to Verizon Vice President Nicola Palmer.

Sprint continues to offer unlimited data on some smartphones, while AT&T stopped offering unlimited data some time ago. T-Mobile offers data tiers but does not cap use, preferring instead to throttle data rates if users go over their paid tier. [via All Things D]